Piped water supply very dirty occasionally

[DiDiChok]

The piped water supply to where I live and the surrounding houses up here in Lamphun is on odd occasions really filthy and disgusting looking as can be seen in the photographs.  Eventually, it runs clear again but that may take a day or two.  As far as I can tell, the locals seem to just put up with it.  While you can shower after a fashion with bottled water, I think that some kind of long term resolution is needed.  I can see that if I install a water pump and a tank, I could simply end up unintentionally with a huge quantity of dirty water in the tank and that could be an expensive mistake.  I do wonder whether any kind of a filter would soon be rendered inoperative, and that what is needed is something that cuts the supply when the water is not clear.  Possibly surprisingly, the water has never made me sick when it is clear and I just don't go near it when it looks like it does in the photos.  I don't think that the colour is caused by sewage pollution as there isn't that awful smell.  The water company hasn't been at all helpful and doesn't seem at all surprised by the photos.  They just seem pleased to hear that the water pressure is very good.

What I am asking is whether anyone has any suggestions for resolving a problem like this or how they managed to resolve this kind of a situation?

[stubuzz]

This also happens in Eastern Thailand.

Solution 1: Pump into a holding tank first so that it can settle.

Solution 2: Use sediment filters.

Solution 3: Take a sample in a clean bottle to the water office.

 

[NCC1701A]

same Hua Hin after big rain.

 

water here is extremely dangerous to your health. 

 

i have filters everywhere.

[lopburi3]

I am not sure a holding tank would be of much use as this appears to be fine mud and likely to just stir anytime tank used and attempts to filter just block materials used. 

 

You are I believe in the worst drought in living memory so expect supply is very limited and often just the mud at the bottom until you can get some rains (which may actually add to the problem for a day or so as it stirs up the mud if from a reservoir).

[NotEinstein]

Our village water is cleaned once a monthish and when they turn it back on it looks like the OPs because they don't bother to flush through, so the first villagers to turn on a tap get it for an hour or so. It got so bad that many houses piping was completely blocked and had to be replaced. We have 1.5 inch feed and I had to rod it through and install a filter to stop the worst. The previous village head guy used to announce when they were about to clean, so we could switch off for a day or so, but now it just happens.

[mlkik]

Is your water supply from the mains supply or is it from a village pond ? Earlier this year in our village the Pooyai bahn decided to take the village off of the mains supply and install a pump and water tank at the large village pond/lake.

This was her solution to the problem of the mains water running out and no water on a frequent basis.

Her decision did not go down well as everyone in the village knows that water buffalo use it to bathe and sh#t in.

Consequently people refused to use the water and within about 2 weeks the unreliable but clean mains water was reinstated.

My other half says in villages it is quite common for their water supply to come from the village pond/lake.

Edited November 8, 2019 by mlkik

[DiDiChok]

We're not really in a small village but close to Lamphun town in Lamphun Province, which is only about 30 Km from Chiang Mai.  The Kuang river flows past less than a kilometre away and that flows into the Ping River in the town.  I have been to Isaan and seen their ponds but that doesn't seem to be how it works around here in Lanna.  Quite where the water comes from, I just don't know but will keep on asking.  I've met the local water diviner already and he makes a good living finding water for local farms despite my scepticism of the practice.  I feel that if something like that works, you can't really knock it.

 

I've seen a few houses with water tanks and gizmos but how those are set up and what kind of filtration is used is what I would like to know.  I had hoped that someone on here would have perfected that knowledge already having gone through the experience of installing different systems until one was found to work.  I also agree with posters that the problem must be due to sediment but I'm stuck for a nudge in the right direction.  I'm disappointed that there seems to be no obvious "Buy an automatic Acme Ltd filtration system" answer yet.

[mlkik]

We have a 2500 litre tank and pump which is a godsend as the water here in the village runs out on a daily basis.

However it does not help with a problem of dirty water. If your neighbours put up with it maybe there is nothing able to be done about it.

Good luck though .

[cornishcarlos]

Get a bore hole and forget about relying on anyone else for your water supply....

[lopburi3]

Water tanks are normally used to store due to intermittent delivery or as reservoir for using pump to increase pressure.  Large filters are used for sedimite and to remove minerals but expect your mud would mostly flow through or cause blockage.

 

As for divining did that as a kid and indeed the fork will spin to ground at some point - but the chance of water is about the same using or not using (dig deep enough you are likely to find water).  

 

Do not know of any automatic system but using tank/pump and turning off supply when dirty is probably the best that can be done.  Am sure a system could be fabricated to block dirty water supply but do not know of any being available.  Decades ago we had such issues after work was done on water supply to homes using village well system so manually turned off supply before they started and turned on again after water was clean again.  As everyone had tank/pump and word passed of maintenance this worked.

Edited November 8, 2019 by lopburi3

[rwill]

8 hours ago, DiDiChok said:

I'm disappointed that there seems to be no obvious "Buy an automatic Acme Ltd filtration system" answer yet.

I have a system at my house.  But the water here is never as bad as yours.  It cost me around 75K for the whole thing.  The nearest shop I could find on google maps was Here:  https://goo.gl/maps/9jSc85zZPxRCh82g8  But Homepro or Global should carry them too.

[chesterubi1]

If you go to one of the big hardware stores, like Home Pro, they will have a selection of filters to purchase and they will also send someone to install the unit as well. Try to get one that has an automatic backwash function, so that it self cleans itself without you having to worry about that. The filter needs to be installed just before your storage tank.

 

May be worth cleaning out the storage tank at the same time as the filter is installed, removing any sediments that have built up in the bottom of the tank.

[NancyL]

My father was good at divining, but not to find water for a well because the local water table was at about 20-30 feet so no need to divine to drill a water bore, but rather to locate drain tiles in a field.  The purpose was to find and replace the broken tile drains with more modern plastic lines help with drainage in the farm fields.

 

 

[JohanB]

A common cause of this problem is a leak somewhere in the mains water lines. When pressure is ok, water seaps out in the dirt, but when pressure is low and some people without holding tank have connected a sucking pressure pump direct to the supply tube (which I suspect is forbidden), they suck the dirty leaked water back into the mains line and pollute for all others down the line.

 

So if this is the situation and the water supply is clean from the village supply, it’s a rather difficult investigation is to find households with installed pressure pumps without storage tank and how far from the feeding point down the line this happends, to find the leak (or leaks) in the mains.

 

Otherwise a holding tank will settle the dirt at the bottom quite fast (but needs regular cleaning) and the filling is normally flushing in from the top, so you’ll get a comparably cleaner looking water over time with a holding tank.

You can also turn off the filling valve during the day and only fill the tank later at night, when water pressure is better.

 

[Jaggg88]

As stated HomePro will have filters and will also install them. I tried to source a micron mesh style filter that would remove the worst of the contamination before it got to our pre-tank cloth style filter but as yet haven't been able to find a supplier. The contamination is so bad on our supply that the filter regularly blocks.

[KhaoYai]

It sounds to me as if you may be on one of the many 'Private Water Supplies'. My girlfriend's house in Korat had the same problem until I discovered that city water passed right outside her gate. It cost about 3500 baht to connect into that and was done within 10 days - problem solved.

 

Do you know if you are on a state water supply or a private company one?

Edited November 8, 2019 by KhaoYai

[tjo o tjim]

7 hours ago, Jaggg88 said:

As stated HomePro will have filters and will also install them. I tried to source a micron mesh style filter that would remove the worst of the contamination before it got to our pre-tank cloth style filter but as yet haven't been able to find a supplier. The contamination is so bad on our supply that the filter regularly blocks.

Any idea how many microns the filter is and size?  
 

I would think replacing a duplex 20”, 20 micron filter once per month should handle that kind of sediment.  If that doesn’t do the job a small sand filter might be needed, where you can backwash the filter...

Edited November 8, 2019 by tjo o tjim

[canopy]

Don't be fooled, divining rods don't work. Studies show they are simply responding to the movements of the person holding them. Nothing to do with water. You'll find that in Thailand the divining rods always point to the most convenient place to park their truck. . I had 3 diviners come out and give a quote. While they disagreed on location, each spot sure was a perfect spot to park their truck. Each will emphatically say that is the only minuscule point on the whole property there is water and refuse to drill anywhere else. One even had this fancy battery powered gadget "from America" they thought would impress me. All I could think of was those bomb scanners.

 

[Chazar]

its  Ok according to others its fine to use that water for cleaning your teeth????

This is "village  water"...................avoid it  like the plague............dig some deepwater well spend some money youll be a lot  happier

[tjo o tjim]

On 11/9/2019 at 12:08 AM, Arjen said:

Our rain water is a different story. I used the same sequence of filters, but the 1 micron got very dirty, the 50 Micron stays always clean. The 35 micron starts to filter out sediment. So I moved all the filters, skipped the 50 Micron and started now with 35 and end with a ceramic filter from 0.1 Micron (or, I start to doubt now, maybe it is 0.3 Micron) Anyway, even that filter gets very dirty. 

Sounds like the PM2.5 counts are accurate...

[VocalNeal]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:20 AM, DiDiChok said:

We're not really in a small village but close to Lamphun town in Lamphun Province, which is only about 30 Km from Chiang Mai.  The Kuang river flows past less than a kilometre away and that flows into the Ping River in the town.  I have been to Isaan and seen their ponds but that doesn't seem to be how it works around here in Lanna.  Quite where the water comes from, I just don't know but will keep on asking.  I've met the local water diviner already and he makes a good living finding water for local farms despite my scepticism of the practice.  I feel that if something like that works, you can't really knock it.

 

I've seen a few houses with water tanks and gizmos but how those are set up and what kind of filtration is used is what I would like to know.  I had hoped that someone on here would have perfected that knowledge already having gone through the experience of installing different systems until one was found to work.  I also agree with posters that the problem must be due to sediment but I'm stuck for a nudge in the right direction.  I'm disappointed that there seems to be no obvious "Buy an automatic Acme Ltd filtration system" answer yet.

The late King favoured or championed a three stage gravity feed gravel/sand filter system comprising three giant earthenware "Isaan pots". 

 

Another solution might be a swimming pool style filter. 

 

But I don't have an  Acme Ltd filtration system" answer